While the few accounts of Beckett’s engagement with Wittgenstein’s philosophy have been necessarily speculative, recently archived correspondence, a companion’s memoir, and the catalogue of his personal library confirm a high degree of exposure: six books by, and six about, Wittgenstein (some of these annotated). Few other authors are better represented in the library. With particular attention to the materials in that library, this essay focuses on several related aspects of the Tractatus in order to establish the special pertinence to Beckett’s postwar and later fiction of Wittgenstein’s treatment of ontology, reference, ineffability, solipsism, nominalism, and ethics.

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Additional Information

ISSN

1086-329X

Print ISSN

0190-0013

Pages

pp. 64-86

Launched on MUSE

2015-09-30

Open Access

No

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